Web Success Diva

Social Media Marketing is Leverage King on the Net!

January 24, 2008 · Social Media Marketing

… period. Okay, for the newbies, let’s cover what social media marketing really is. Not what the buzzards online say, but what it is and what it is not:

Social media marketing is not necessarily new technology. Yes, the way we use and the technologies all have tweaked, but its basically the way we social media market that has changed. Video, audio, communities, blogs, forums, and more have all been around — now they are being integrated by leaps and bounds to create totally interactive experiences for the user and marketers.
Social media marketing includes an entirely different mindset with regards to how you think of your audience. Social media marketing engages your audience in conversations and interactions, that ultimately lead to many marketing benefits.
What makes social media marketing special? As with anything in business, the money is in leveraging. Leveraging the power of other peoples’ money has made millionaires over the last centuries. Leveraging the power of a VA, has given more solopreneurs to have time to develop and grow their business. In a similar way, social media marketing helps marketers, solopreneurs, authors, writers, coaches, consultants, and other online entrepreneurs leverage the Internet’s social media technologies to market on a whole new, much more expanded level.

What are examples of social media marketing?

We all know the staple, MySpace, but have you considered such social networking communities as Facebook, Live Spaces, Bebo, and LinkedIn among others. Social networking sites allow you to “network” online with your audience. Initiating conversations, branding your products/services, and gaining online visibility are all key functions of these sites. Not to mention, you can get some great back-links from your efforts, which will help when trying to get your website ranked in search engines.
Micro Blogging Sites - these are a cross between blogs (which search engines love), instant messaging, and social bookmarking sites. Twitter and Pownce lead the pack in this category. The great thing about these sites? They allow you to not only connect like a social networking site, but also micro blog - sending updates to your connections. As well, Twitter allows you to auto-update your blog posts. While each are not heavily ranked by Google, yet. They both allow you to communicate in meaningful ways with your connections. Companies like Dell, JetBlue, Carnival, and even news networks (think CNN, MSNBC) use micro-blogging sites to communicate with their audiences.
Mutlimedia sites: Sites like YouTube and Revver, provide an excellent way to interact with your potential audience in mutlimedia forms (audio and video). And, if you haven’t noticed lately, videos have been getting great top rankings in Google. They are also great for easy embedding into your blogs and websites. People also share these videos.
Social Bookmarking sites: Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, OnlyWire, among others, allow you to interactive with your audience by sharing your favorite online stuff. Everytime you bookmark a great site, blog, or whatever, not only does your entire connection list have access to your bookmarks (to love and share, hopefully), but they also give you great marketing leverage when you recieve more votes. The point is to get your online related materials into the front of your potential audience.

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, and I’m sure there are many more developments on the horizon. The point is, social media marketing, as a whole offers more opportunities for online marketing, online branding, building online publicity, ensuring full online visibility, building expert status, and increasing conversions based on credibility. Each of these is critical, as a component to an overall strategy, to achieve your online goals.

Many of social media marketing’s opportunities are free or low-cost, as well. Except for the time involved (or money if outsourcing), social media marketing is a very cost-effective way to create an overall, long-term strategy to online marketing.

The greatest part of social media marketing - its open access. From big to small, all online entrepreneurs can find a mix of social media marketing tools that would benefit them. The goal? To find locations online, where your audience can be found, to initiate conversations and encourage interest.

The key? Doing it right. As with anything online, social media marketing, has alot of immitators, quick-rich schemes, and other ploys that can be costly and time-consuming. Always remember your audience. If they are not there, is it really a conversation?

To Your Success,

Maria Reyes-McDavis

Web Success Diva

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